Dow Jones Business News
More Damages Awarded In Alabama Solutia PCB Case > SOI
Thursday April 3, 5:42 pm ET
By Desiree J. Hanford, Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
ST. LOUIS (Dow Jones)--An Alabama jury awarded more property
cleanup and mental anguish damages on Thursday in the Abernathy
PCB lawsuit against Solutia Inc. (NYSE:SOI - News) , but it
didn't award any damages for reduction in property value, a
Solutia spokeswoman said.
The jury has now returned property cleanup, lost value of
property and mental anguish damages totaling $4.4 million for 11
of the 17 plaintiffs.
One female plaintiff was awarded $45,190 for property cleanup,
and she was awarded $125,000 for mental anguish, Solutia
spokeswoman Beth Rusert said.
A couple was awarded $15,778 for remediation of their property
and the wife was awarded $100,000 for mental anguish. The
husband wasn't awarded any mental anguish damages. He worked at
the plant involved in the lawsuit and so he is eligible for
worker's compensation if needed, Rusert said.
Another plaintiff was awarded $1.9 million to clean up a 40-acre
farm and $ 150,000 for mental anguish.
Two people who own three commercial parcels that are more than 40
acres in size were awarded $1.2 million to clean the property.
One of the pair was awarded $100,000 in mental anguish. The
other person, who didn't have any detectible levels of PCBs in
the body, wasn't awarded mental anguish damages, Rusert said.
Solutia is facing several polychlorinated biphenyl, or PCB,
lawsuits. Abernathy vs. Monsanto involves 3,500 Anniston, Ala.,
residents who are suing Pharmacia Corp. (NYSE:PHA - News) ,
Solutia and the Monsanto that existed before it merged with
Pharmacia. The residents claim that PCBs were dumped into creek
and open- pit landfills and that those actions made them sick and
lowered their property values.
The "old" Monsanto spun off Solutia in September 1997. That
Monsanto, which traded under the ticker symbol MTC, merged with
the former Pharmacia & Upjohn Inc. in March 2000 to form the
current Pharmacia. Pharmacia eventually spun off the current
Monsanto Co. (NYSE:MON - News) that focuses on agriculture and
biotechnology.
Monsanto made PCBs at the Anniston plant between 1935 and 1971.
The Anniston plant was part of the spin-off of Solutia from
Monsanto.
The Abernathy lawsuit went to trial in January 2002. The jury
found in favor of the plaintiffs a month later, but damages
weren't determined at the time. Abernathy is the name of one of
the plaintiffs in the lawsuit.
-By Desiree J. Hanford, Dow Jones Newswires; 314-588-8443;
desiree.hanford@dowjones.com